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Spiritual center of yoga is being lost: Yogi
YOGA CLASS: David Moreno instructs a yoga class in Menteng, Central Jakarta, last week
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YOGA CLASS: David Moreno instructs a yoga class in Menteng, Central Jakarta, last week. (JP/Prodita Sabarini) A sound like a hidden bass reverberated off the walls of Rumah Yoga last week, as the chanting of three oms signaled the special class was underway.
Sitting crossed-legged on colorful mattresses in the center in Menteng, South Jakarta, students followed visiting international yoga teacher David Moreno chant the Sanskrit words: "Om shanti, shanti shanti".
With each utterance of shanti, or peace in Sanskrit, the yoga practitioners placed their clasped hands above their heads and in front of their chests and navels.
"The three oms and the Sanskrit chant signify that the Yoga practice will train the body, mind and spirit," Moreno said after the class.
Indian in origin, Yoga is a means for accomplishing an alignment between the body, mind, and spirit. The exercise combines meditation, breathing, and poses that require flexibility and strength.
The physical aspect of yoga has been much popularized in the West, and thousands look to it for defined muscles like Madonna's, who is said to practice yoga daily.
The yoga trend has also spread to Jakarta, with almost all fitness centers in the city offering mind-and-body classes.
Yudhi Widdyantoro, who has been teaching yoga for 12 years, said he was "amused" by the inclusion of yoga in fitness centers aerobics schedules, but also worried the discipline was being turned into something it was not.
While Moreno's focus is on the alignment of body, mind and spirit, most of the Yoga classes being taught here put more emphasis on the physical.
"They (teachers) neglect the spiritual aspect of yoga. People only practice yoga because they think it's trendy," he said.
He said more and more people were doing Yoga just to shift the spare tires around their middles. "The deep philosophy of Yoga is not attained," he said.
Though practicing yoga does help build a fit body, its essence, in its deeper traditional sense, is being lost, Yudhi said.
Moreno said the main objective of Yoga was self-realization. "We must be aware of our essential nature," he said.
Om is a very simple chant with a complex meaning. It is made up of three Sanskrit letters -- aa, au and ma -- which, when combined together, make the sound aum or om. Om represents the union of mind, body and spirit. To a yogi, no symbol is more powerful than the syllable om.
Moreno said Yudhi's concern -- that yoga is being corrupted by commercialism -- was a very real one.
"With all the people in the world who are doing yoga now, very few of them are understand Yoga in that (divine) way," he said.
Moreno said it was important for yoga practitioners to find a qualified teacher.
His class at Rumah Yoga was held to launch the International Festival of Yoga, Music and Dance.
Moreno will also be participating in the six-day Balispirit festival in March, the start of the Hindu New Year. The festival themed "Silence, Inhale, Exhale" will feature a selection of workshops: Laughter Yoga, Anusara Yoga, West African Dance, Sensual Dance, Belly Dancing and Sufi chants -- bringing international and local names together in Ubud.
